The plenary on the health impacts of wildfire featured Angela Yao, a senior scientist with the BC Centre for Disease Control. She focused on the physical impacts of smoke exposure, primarily respiratory, but focused on what communities can do to minimize exposure. “Smoke is here to stay. We need to learn to live with it,” she said. In the past, improvements to air pollution have been made by controlling the source of pollution. But we have far less control over smoke, which is but now the largest contributor to extreme air pollution in BC. “So, what is our strategy? I believe the key is to prepare communities and individuals to reduce exposure.”
Armel Castellan, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, underscored Yao’s points when he spoke of the trajectory of climate change. “This is not a new normal. I don’t ever want to hear the term ‘new normal’ from any of you,” he told the crowd of local leaders. “We are on a trajectory. Several years from now, this summer will seem tame.” One action he pointed to is a pilot program to install small air quality sensors around the country, to contribute real time data on air quality, which can help people plan to avoid bad air as much as possible. Health Minister Adrian Dix talked about wildfire evacuations in long-term care facilities. “Almost 1,000 people in long-term care were evacuated this year, and we have no expectation that this will not happen again,” he said. The majority of people in long-term care have dementia, making the decision to evacuate profoundly difficult. On top of that, “every health care worker helping maintain stability for patients are themselves facing the same smoke, the same evacuation alerts, the same risk to their own homes.” |